In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media products?

When designing my magazine I looked at a range of indie/alternative existing
magazines, such as Loud and Quiet, Dazed and Confused, Clash, etc. for
inspiration and to see what was happening in current industry. I took ideas from a
combination of these popular and well known magazines which each use,
develop and challenge typical conventions themselves, varying from issue to
issue. I chose to adopt a variety of ideas from the pre-existing magazines as they
successfully and effectively appealed to the target audience and represented the
indie genre clearly and consistently throughout the whole product. Inspiration for
the front cover page of my magazine came predominantly from Fantastic Man
along with the idea of creating something which would stand out on the
magazine shelves inside stores through innovative styling but at the same time
conforming to the minimalistic style adopted by most magazines within this
genre.
CONVENTIONS OF CONTENTS
When producing my final version of the contents page I based the design and
layout around successful, pre-existing magazines such as Clash and Fader, yet I
decided to develop ideas presented from these magazines and create a more
unique approach for the contents display; I used Faders idea to feature
chunks/blocks of text based on the main features within the magazine as I felt
this looked stylish and professional. I also felt that it allow the reader/audience to
gain a more detailed insight into the pages and what to expect from the columns
displayed. In terms of the layout, again, I used ideas shown in Fader, despite this
being a hip-hop, RnB genre music magazine I felt that it was still suitable to
take and alter conventions from as it appeared stylish and edgy which was
something in intended to achieve with my magazine. The straight columns
ordering the features appeared neat, minimalistic and professional and ensured
the reader was not overwhelmed at a glance of the page, also ensuring that
everything on the page was organised and neat. I then adopted a similar style
font to that used in Clash. I wanted to achieve the stylish, vintage style
appearance of the page overall which I feel adds to the effectiveness of
presenting my chosen genre of indie clearly. I like the edgy feel that the Clash
contents page achieves and therefore wanted to create a page which resembled
this, which influenced me to use font style Orator on Photoshop. As shown in
Fader, I sized the titles of the feature pages slightly larger (9) than the text which
followed (7) as I feel the title is the main piece of information which would grab
the attention of the audience and lead them to developing interest and want to
read the section of following text and find the page in the magazine. Fader
features a Soundcheck and On Location area on their contents page inside
every issue to ensure maintained consistency; this is something which I decided
to use as I feel these subjects would be points of interest to the target audience
(16-24) and would be something which would encourage them to buy the issue.

MASTHEAD
Using font Tennessee SF to type the masthead Original in size 88, I ensured
that the front cover would make a statement on the page and garb the attention
of the public as they pass by the magazine stands in stores and appears
aesthetically pleasing to the target audience, fitting in with the indie genre and
overall design of the front cover. The Tennessee SF font type appears vintage
and stylish, enabling the front cover to represent the indie genre successfully
and effectively. As well as this I had to ensure the audience were able to clearly
read the masthead without having to look too closely to identify the magazine
and strengthen branding and recognition; this is something which is also
considered with real media products in industry as they need to ensure product
recognition to maintain sales, etc. The masthead featured on the front cover is
similar to that of Dazed and Confused, Loud and Quiet and Clash music
magazines in the sense that the lettering is displayed in a basic font, capitals,
bold and thick to ensure it stands out on the page and makes a statement. I feel
that by using this convention of real media products I have allowed Original
magazine to create a sense of professional branding and the basic style font of
the masthead allows the main focus of the audience to be kept on the image and
the cover lines which would be the main factors drawing attention to the product
and encourage sales through appearing aesthetically pleasing and interesting; as
well as this I feel that the cover of each issue of Original should speak for itself
and represent the indie genre clearly and effectively, therefore it was important
that the masthead did not give much insight into the content of the magazine
away, like on many magazines in this industry such as: Loud and Quiet, Dazed
and Confused, i-D, etc. I do not feel that the audience should make assumptions
about the magazine itself based on just the masthead and its design on the
page. My thoughts when creating the masthead were that I wanted something
which would ensure original stood out amongst other magazines on the store
shelves through being large and bold, but yet would not overwhelm the page in
the eyes of the audience. I decided on formatting the masthead text as black
and bold to allow the colours to contrast with the white background colour of the
page and ensure it was clearly readable. Due to being centrally aligned on the
page ( a convention taken on many pre-existing magazines such as Clash, Loud

and Quiet, Dazed and Confused, etc.) my design appears neat, symmetrical and
aesthetically pleasing.

FRONT COVER PAGE LAYOUT AND CONVENTIONS

In terms of the front cover layout, I used many conventions of fashion magazine,
Fantastic Man as I found this style effective at portraying a sophisticated, stylish
look which I intended to achieve with my front cover. As I felt I was able to
change the fashion orientation of the magazine into a suited indie music genre
through altering wording etc. I employed conventions of this real media product
including: using of image and surrounding borderline of image, bottom central
cover line, placement of the barcode and issue date and price, as well as bottom

brief introductory text.

Elaborating on the upper left side of the page barcode placement being a
convention used by many real media products, it has been shown to look
effective on issues of Indie, Bullet, Clash, Dazed, etc.

GRAPHOLOGY
I aimed to adopt the minimalistic approach on the front cover as I did not want to
overwhelm and deter the audience from purchasing a copy. I felt that after
looking at industry pre-existing texts, a basic simple approach appealed more to
the indie target audience and looked more aesthetically pleasing. Magazines
including, Clash, Loud and quiet, i-D and many more have chosen to adopt this
minimal approach frequently, therefore showing it is a successful and effective
idea. Due to the basic cover layout, as inspired by Fantastic Man, I feel the
audience are as a result more able to focus on the important pieces of
information displayed on the cover which would be enough to influence the
likelihood of a sale. I liked how the layout allows for continuity on every page and
can be adapted to suit any specific topic as it is not suggestive and is not too
complex to adjust to suit.
The font use predominantly on the front cover page (Orator Std) displaying the
band/artist features, profession of artist Jack Wolf and bottom introductory
information about the contents, is also featured as the dominant style of text on
both the contents and double page spread. The maintained consistency makes
the magazine seem well constructed at an industry standard as it fits well
together, each page following onto the next with a continuous colour theme
throughout, creating a high level of continuity.
On the front cover, the font used stating the name of the featured cover artist is
Adobe Devanagari which is different to any other fonts featured throughout the
magazine; this could be considered as using conventions of that used on Clash
and Dazed and Confused as this has been done by the brands multiple times on
various issues where the cover line(s) are shown to be formatted in a completely
different text. I feel this has allowed the name of the artist to stand out on the
cover and is likely to draw the attention of the audience as they pass by due to
not entirely fitting in with the rest of the design. Although despite being a
different font from others used consistently throughout the magazine, I do not
feel this negatively affects the overall look of the magazine as I do not think it
appears out of place on the cover; everything works well together, creating the
intended image for the overall product representing indie and classic style
themes within the magazine. The front cover features black colour filled boxes to

allow the band/artist features to stand out effectively; to ensure this was kept
consistent and fitting in with the design as a whole, I also applied the use of the
black filled box behind the singer text item to ensure this text stood out to the
audience and after it has grabbed their attention, they would understand the
purpose of the magazine (music orientated) and those audience members who
were less aware of Jack Wolf as an artist would develop knowledge of his
profession to potentially want to purchase a copy of this issue and read more
about the featured artist. The boxes add to the dramatic and edgy feel to the
product and are a convention I used from real media product, Spin music
magazine as I came across the cover featuring Lana Del Rey during the research
and planning stages of the task and felt I could interpret this idea and apply it
onto the cover of original.

On both the contents page and double page spread I created for the task I made
sure of consistency of design and branding through the use of page numbers and
the name of the magazine (Original) placed directly underneath the number; the
font size of this remained the same on every page it was featured size 6 as well
as in font style. This was something I took from Dazed and Confused as I liked
the professionalism and strengthened branding it creates- the audience is
constantly reminded of the brand of the magazine whilst reading as it is
displayed centrally at the bottom of every page to avoid distraction away from
the content of the magazine. To further the branding and consistency, I
formatted the left page of the double page spread in white to ensure the text
was clearly visible and contrasting with the black colour from the image.

A variation of high and low language register is used appropriate to engage the
target audience who would be literate (as they are interested in print media in
the first place) and intellectual as they are fans/listeners of indie music which
often has meaning behind the lyrics presenting a narrative and would require
thought to understand in many cases- there is usually a need for understanding

with this genre of music. This combination of language registers is typical in

many magazines of this type as the readers would potentially be put off overly
formal context as they would want an easy, interesting read at the same time
as not insulting their intelligence and flowing nicely throughout.
ARTIST PROFILE/ IMAGE CONVENTIONS
The image featured on the front cover uses conventions of real media products
as the close up shot of the artist is something which is commonly employed by
most music magazines in industry, such as Clash; this ensures the audience can
clearly identify the artist featured on the magazine, strengthening the artist
profile in an aim to encourage fans/ target audience to develop and interest as a
result and purchase a copy. The use of a close up shot of a solo artist is used by
pre-existing magazines in industry including, Loud and quiet, Dazed and
Confused, i-D, etc. My artist, Jack Wolf, represents the indie genre effectively; I
aged the artist at 19 as this is a typical age for an artist in the music industry
creating clever and catchy songs to interest and engage the target audience
When creating the artist profile I used information and appearance of real indie
musicians of present including Jamie T, Artic Monkeys, The 1975 and Tom Odell.
In relation to the mise en scene, I chose to keep the styling of the artist on the
front cover colourful and eccentric to some extent as the floral shirt is bright and
bold, whilst fitting in effectively with the indie/alt genre of music. I based the
colour scheme of black, red and white around the colours of the artists shirt
displaying a level of consistency. I feel that this styling conforms to the
stereotypical image of indie artists and indie followers as they are often seen to
be wearing smart attire and expressing personality through their choice of
clothing. Expressions and stance were very important during the photography
stages of the task to set mood, clearly present the indie genre and allow the
audience to understand an element of the males personality through the images
featured within the magazine. I used a variety of shot types across the whole
product as the cover displays a close up image of the solo artist, contents page
showing two examples of medium close-up images and the double page spread
features a mid-shot and long-shot of Jack Wolf to effectively show a level of skill
which is something used within all magazines within industry to prevent the
magazine looking very similar on each page I intended to create an engaging,
appealing and interesting product as a whole.
My choice of a solo artist plays well with the design of the front cover and is
something adopted by many magazines within industry including Dazed and
Confused and Clash magazine; this may be due to the fact that often more than
one person inside a shot has the potential to make the front cover seem
overcrowded and unappealing- simplicity is often chosen by magazines in
industry to effectively appeal to the audience. All images used within the
magazine are conventional for a typical indie music magazine, and based on
research conducted on style models inside this genre, such as Clash and Loud
and Quiet.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD CONVENTIONS

My main source of inspiration for the design and layout of my double page
spread came from King Krules feature inside an episode of Clash. I found the
unusual structure of the right aligned text interesting and wanted to replicate
this idea to achieve a similar look of incredible style and boldness. The page
layout in general develops typical conventions combined and presented in many
pre-existing text as pages of text are often shown to be in neat columns following
a left to right structure; this demonstrates the ways in which I have developed
conventions of real media products, although not entirely as the idea was
inspired by Clash who are known to be experimental with placement of text,
image and space on pages. The font used, Orator Std, is simple and easily
readable, yet it helps develop a vintage appearance to the page which further
defines the magazine as indie. As I wanted to portray a level of skill within the
magazine I decided to feature an image on the double page spread which was
taken in an outside environment to create an urban, edgy feel on the page; this
idea came from the King Kruels double page feature in Clash where the mise en
scene presents a rough, urban style outside setting with concrete and fences
exposed. However it could be said that the variety of mise en scene shown on
images within my magazine develops photography conventions of typical indie
music magazines in industry as often the featured artists are captured inside a
studio or with some sort of meaningful background, whereas my choice to
capture my artist In a rough looking outside area was based around elements of
creating drama and adding to the stylishness. I also opted to filter images on this
page in black and white as I felt this achieved an edgy and bold appearance and
allowed the page to make a statement. The use of monotone colours is used
often in many real print media products as the image is made to appear more
glossy, vintage and stylish. Styling of the artist for the image featured on the
right page of the double spread was largely influenced by research and planning
on indie bands: The xx and The 1975 as they adopt a minimalistic style of
clothing which I felt was effective as it does not give anything away bout the
artist or their style of music and creates a sense of mystery and interest.

The text on the double page spreads reads as an interview of the artist; this is
something used in pre-existing texts such as Clash and Q magazine frequently as
it is known to be a point of interest for the audience and a chance for them to
gain more knowledge on the artists/celebrities they are interested in. This allows
an easy read as artist responses are easy to follow and information is not too
complex to consider, encouraging the reader to read the entire interview.